Our longitudinal research, which includes periodic follow-ups, is designed to assess the prevalence of hopelessness, depression, and suicidal ideation among addicted individuals in an outpatient methadone treatment program in order to: (a) ascertain the value of these psychological variables in differentiating program continuers and discontinuers, and (b) delineate predictive indices of suicidal behavior within this sample. Both of these broad aims may eventually contribute to a better understanding of the psychology of drug addiction, and may aid in the design of more effective treatment programs. By a repeated measurement design we plan to (a) assess fluctating levels of hopelessness, depression and suicidal ideation as a function of treatment length; (b) isolate subgroups of individuals with chronic "down and out" or hopeless life styles; and (c) pinpoint and isolate variables related to suicidal behaviors among our sample. Long-term follow-up data will enable us to judge the value of our instruments as predictors of treatment responsiveness, and suicidal acting out. Although depression and suicidal behaviors among drug addicted individuals have been the focus of various clinical and empirical studies, the role of hopelessness as an important determinant of addiction has not been systematically explored. Since we have developed and validated instruments to assess not only hopelessness, but also depression and suicidal ideation, we are in a position to explore objectively the roles these variables play in the treatment-phase of drug addiction. Since we have successfully used a cognitive-behavioral approach to depression, we plan to adapt our psychotherapy to depressed drug abusers. We predict that the group treated in this way will have greater success in a methadone maintenance program and will be less prone to suicide. We also plan to determine what types of patients are most responsive to this form of psychotherapy.